There is risk associated with working for a startup. Risk that you will suddenly lose your job. Risk that you will lose your health insurance two days before on

There is risk associated with working for a startup. Risk that you will suddenly lose your job. Risk that you will lose your health insurance two days before one of your kids requires an operation. It's a level of risk that doesn't exist if you work for the government or some big mega-corp. There's also a level of buy-in that startups demand. You're asked to make it more than "just a job." Even the guy mopping the damn floor is asked to mop it until it shines, just because "we're all in this together." People deserve to be compensated for that if things go well. But to your stereotypical business sociopath only executive-level individuals and their cronies are real human beings. (Actually, nobody is a real human being. It's only about winning in the shortest possible term.) And I'd be willing to wager that these particular executives were more of the empty suit, posturing, clueless, "let's do lunch," "I'll have my people talk to your people," variety. There is a negative correlation between actual merit and this kind of behavior.